Gemini's Destiny
by sunshineyellow
Summary: Yes, the title is cheesy. This is not a typical, 'next-gen' fic, I tried to keep it true to the original chars. Selphie and Irvine's twins were normal until.....


"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!"  
  
Irvine ran to the bathroom; Selphie was screaming bloody murder.  
  
"What is it, honey? What's wrong?" Selphie stared at him, a look of complete horror on her face.  
  
"I have all these gray hairs." she said softly. "It seems like they just came today. Where did they all come from?" Irvine sighed. At least she hadn't slipped and cut herself like last week.  
  
"Don't worry about it honey. We're old. Look." And he leaned down and showed Selphie a largish gray spot near the top of his head.  
  
"Oh wow. We are." She giggled and ruffled his still thick, vivrant red hair , long since cut to a more manageable length. "I'm sorry. No more mid-life crises. We'll be late for work."  
  
"Right you are, Butterfly. Where's my tie?" Selphie giggled again; Irvine had asked her that just about every morning for the last twenty years. Irvine had never owned a tie in his life except for the bow tie he'd worn to their second wedding. The two of them finished getting dressed and went down to eat breakfast.  
  
"What's going on in the world today?" Irvine asked from his station in front of the waffle iron.  
  
"Hmmmm?" Selphie said from behind her morning paper. "Oh, well.....more stuff about the missile shield negotiations between Esthar and Galbadia.........earthquake in Trabia causes several million gil in property damage, none injured....................Commander Squall Leonheart of Balamb Garden announces a drop in munitions sales.............a new study released shows that owning a dog actually does decrease blood pressure....." At this point she reached down to pet a rheumy golden retriever under the table. "...........President Trepe of Esthar on crusade against teen pregnancy............local news........there was a fire on Serenity Street, go figure, ..........the Timberwolves are 0 and 4...........and the most dramatic news of all: the government is sponsoring Free Popsicle Day."  
  
"You're kiddding."  
  
"Nope. To celebrate good will, they are paying off every ice cream shop in Timber to give free popsicles next Tuesday."  
  
"Wow."  
  
"I know." They ate the waffles in silence until the dog raised itself from the floor and tugged at Irvine's pants.  
  
"What's up Trigger? You wanna walk, boy?" He put the plates in the dishwasher and grabbed a leash from the hook. "God, the house is quiet." he remarked as he was pulling on a wind breaker.  
  
"I know. It seems like yesterday they were running around, breaking and coloring everything they could get their hands on." A resigned pause. "Oh, Cheveya called yesterday. She and little Aki are coming over tonight."  
  
"Great! I'll go to the store later, we can have a barbecue! Geez, I'm only 44 and I'm a grandpa. Ridiculous."  
  
"As ridiculous as Selphie Tilmitt being called 'Grandma.'"  
  
"Selphie Kinneas."  
  
"You wish." At this point Irvine was half out the door; Trigger pulling him toward the flower beds. "I hate you."  
  
"I know." And then he was out the door. Selphie ran upstairs grabbed a coat and her bag. As an after thought, she grabbed the 'Strange Vision' and jumped in the car. She waved to Irvine, who was apparently being walked by Trigger, and headed down the interstate.  
  
  
  
No one had really expected it. Everyone expected that Squall and Rinoa, the fairy tale couple, would announce their marriage first and live happily ever after. Everyone thought wrong. Squall and Rinoa seperated for about two months after the Ultimecia incident. They fought all the time and after Rinoa became a SeeD, it was a fairly common sight to see a pile of personal effects outside one of their doors. Usually a leather jacket, a few books and several pairs of boxers if it was Rinoa's room and light blue pajamas, hairbrushes, books and dog shampoo if it was Squall's room. Eventually, (about a year and a half later) their relationship settled down, and although it ws never quite as lovey-dovey as it was in the very beginning, it was still fairly sickening. They dated for another three years before finally getting married.  
  
  
  
Like, I said before, no one really expected it. Everyone knew my dad; no one really expected him to settle down. So about three months after the Ultimecia incident, when Squall and Rinoa were squabbling, Rinoa asked Mom if she'd ever thought about getting married. Mom just looked at her and held out her hand. About three days after the Ultimecia incident, Mom and Dad had run off to Deling City and gotten hitched. Cid and Edea were the only ones who knew about it, since Cid had advanced both Mom and Dad's pay so they could buy the rings and stay in the hotel. No one expected it. Rinoa had actually fainted dead away. Squall had stared at Mom while halfheartedly fanning the unconcious Rinoa. When Zell heard, he actually punched a hole in a wall, a hole that was very close to where my dad's head had been at the time. They didn't speak for at least a year unless they were on a mission and it was necessary. I guess uncle Zell had a thing for Mom back then. Quistis only raised an eyebrow and then started whacking my mother across the head for not having a big ol' wedding that Quistis could have helped with. I really wish I could have seen it. But of course I didn't come until about six years later. Oh wait, I haven't introduced myself, have I? My name is Cirn Kinneas.  
  
What did they do for six years, you ask? Well, hell if I know. Every time I ask, they get this kind of glazed look in their eyes and grope for each other's hands. All I know is that they went on a particularly dangerous mission and came back kind of scraped up. They were in the hospital and they ran some tests and they told Mom she was pregnant. She told me that Dad hit the wall at first and then went and told Squall that Mom would not be setting foot outside the Garden for nine months. With a gun in his hand. That was me and my twin sister Cheveya. Mom said she'd thought of our names when she was really little. My dad picked our middle names: mine's Arthur and Cheveya's is Mariana. So right before we were born, our parents went and requested 'out-SeeD' status. Basically that means they were on-call but on the bottom of the priority list. They would have to use up all of the 'active' SeeDs before they could call Mom and Dad. So they moved and got a little house in Timber. Mom got a job as transporation director for the entire country of Timber(which is pretty tiny). It meant that Mom was always out, inspecting planes and trains and buses, alloting money for building roads. Dad was more of a home body. He taught history and music at the high school two blocks away. He was always talking about how different it was from Garden, how the kids there didn't have a care in the world except getting into university. He was 'house dad', he was always making us PB&J's and picking our friends up.  
  
Of course they were still SeeD's. When we were older, they'd leave before we got up and head off into the hills with their weapons to train. And they did go on a couple of missions that I remember. One time, I was maybe 7 and Mom came home looking so angry. I was a little scared; Mom never came home that early. She paid the baby sitter and watched TV with me and Veya until Dad came home and she sent us upstairs. There were some loud words and then they came upstairs and told us they would be going away for a while. We had to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Watts for at least a week. That happened maybe three or four times while I was young. Wow......look at me going on. Mom used to say I was 'pulling a Squall' all the time. And I'm chattering as much as her now. The point of this was to tell you a little about my mom and dad. I mean, people always wonder what happened to two of the 'Six.' So there it is. Now on to our story............me.  
  
  
  
As Selphie drove down the road toward the federal building, she thought she saw a familiar person on the side of the road. She pulled over and peered out the wiindow just to be sure. Of course she was. You don't easily forget the face of someone you have to forcibly remove from your body.  
  
"Cirn Arthur! What the hell is going on?"  
  
"Whoa, there mama! Take a chill pill. Can I get a ride?"  
  
"Where to?"  
  
"Where ever your going." Selphie stared at her firstborn(by two minutes) with interest. He was always so quiet, compared to his gregarious parents. He, of course, towered over his mother, at 5'10 and he had his father's auburn hair too. But his eyes, bright green, which were usually like wide pools of light, were narrowed in anger. He had grown some stubble and his SeeD uniform looked rumpled and unwashed.  
  
"I'm going to work. We're going to go to my office and talk about whatever the hell is going on with you."  
  
She pulled the car into the garage and yanked her son out of it, practically dragging him by his long ponytail up to her office on the 21st floor. And she had used the stairs too. Sat him in a chair in front of her desk. Cirn regarded the plaque on his mother's desk with interest. Selphie Tilmitt- Director of Transportation. It was a bit imposing, really. But nothing could be as imposing as the look his mother was giving him right now.  
  
"Speak."  
  
"I, uh, hi Mom." Cirn flashed her a guilty grin that he could have only picked up from his father. It only made Selphie angrier. "Don't even try it. He can't do it, you can't do it. What happened?"  
  
Cirn just grinned again. "I quit SeeD."  
  
Selphie gasped. He'd obviously said it like that to make her gasp, so she humoured him. "Why? What happened?"  
  
He wiped his forehead. "You're getting a little repetitive, Mom. Well, I realized that we were selling our skills of death to the highest bidder. Does anyone deserve to die because someone else has more money than they do, huh?" He glared at his mother and a bit of the angry, jade glint was there. "So I decided to become a writer." He dropped something Selphie hadn't noticed he'd been carrying, a backpack with a long blade strapped to the back.  
  
"Mmm-hmmm, really. So what does your girl friend think of all this? And why are you so rumpled? Even if you were dumb enough to quit before your paycheck, your Aunt Rinoa would have given you some money to get home." Cirn winced at the mention of his girlfriend, Lyn.  
  
"Er, she's half the reason why I'm rumpled. She threw everything in her room at me." He rubbed his arm and then his eye. Selphie saw that something she'd assumed was dirt was actually the remnants of a black eye.  
  
"She gave you that too? She's a strong one, eh?" His mother started giggling, something he couldn't stand, especially when he was trying to be serious.  
  
"Mom! Cut that out. If you must know, Commander Leonheart decked me when I called him a souless bastard."  
  
Selphie abruptly stopped giggling. "Cirn, why on earth did you do that? How could you say something so awful to your uncle? You know he's probably sulking in a corner right now, trying to convince himself that he isn't. And you know he isn't!" Selphie pressed a button on the phone. "You are going to apologize to him right this instant, young man!"  
  
Cirn's face again screwed up in anger, and Selphie realized only then that he looked exactly like her when he was angry, something she'd overlooked. "No, I'm not, Mom. I am 21 years old and I can make my own decisions. And I meant every word I said to Commander Leonheart."  
  
Selphie was livid and Cirn was slightly scared. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen his mother this angry. Strangely, he realized that he resembled her more than anything at this moment. "You will call and apologize this minute or you will not be sleeping under my roof!"  
  
Cirn stood up. She could shove it. "Fine! I don't need to sleep under your roof. You can tell that bastard I hope that whole damn place sinks into the ocean!" He stormed out of the room, firey ponytail swinging.  
  
'Oh, my quiet baby. What did they do to you?' Selphie thought sadly while the phone rang at Garden.  
  
"Hello, Balamb Garden, Headmaster's office."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm looking for Commander Leonheart."  
  
"Terribly sorry, he's not in at the moment. May I take a message?"  
  
"No thanks."  
  
"Have a nice day."  
  
She dialed Squall and Rinoa at home.  
  
"Hello."  
  
"Hello? Who's this?'  
  
"Who is this?"  
  
"Amina? Is that you?"  
  
"Who wants to know?"  
  
Selphie sighed; she'd had enough adolescent angst for today. "Look, I need to speak with your father. I know he's home."  
  
"Daad!! Quit sulking! Pick up the phone! I don't know!"  
  
"Hello, this is Mr. Leonheart."  
  
"Squall.."  
  
"Selphie?"  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"About that kid of yours....."  
  
"I know."  
  
Cirn stormed down the stairs, and about the time he got to the 10th floor, he felt stupid. He'd just freaked out at his mom. Plus he was dirty, hungry and now had no place to stay. In the lobby, he received strange looks from the federal employees, what with the dirt, SeeD uniform and sword, he could hardly blame them. He stood, counting his money in the doorway, wondering if he had enough for a hostel (he had been stupid enough to quit before his paycheck) and was run into. By someone who looked exactly like him.  
  
"Hey watch it lady!"  
  
"You watch it! I got a baby here!" The red-haired woman turned around to give him another piece of her mind and found herself looking at an extremely dirty version of her twin brother. He gave her a five-star grin.  
  
"What the hell happened to you?" were the first words out of Cheveya's mouth.  
  
"Not in front of the kid. Say, can I stay with you for a little while?" The 'bad twin' rolled her eyes.  
  
"What did you do?"  
  
"Called uncle Squall a bastard."  
  
"No way."  
  
"Way."  
  
"Well, dickheadedness of that caliber certianly deserves the reward of staying under our roof." 


End file.
